Death — something to talk about
Talking about death won’t kill you — but sometimes it can be frightening or awkward. The 100% Certainty Project promotes books to read and talk about, which will help to get conversations started about what’s important to you when you face what is inevitable.
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Read. Reflect. Talk about books.
Talk about death. Live your fullest life.
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Events
Death over Dinner
@DBHSC 100 Main St W
WED 19 MARCH
6:00-8:00pm
free admission
join us!
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RSVP required please
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Past Events
Wednesday,
August 7, 2024
6:00–8:00 p.m.
Death Cafe
DBHSC - 100 Main Street W, Hamilton - room 2036
ALL WELCOME
group directed discussion of death
FREE EVENT
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Wednesday, March 6, 2024
6:45 p.m.
The Big Chill free movie at
The Westdale Theatre
1014 King St W
Wednesday, November 1, 2023; 4:00–7:30 p.m.
Living in the Gap: an honest look into how death, dying, loss, grief and bereavement are experienced in Hamilton
Hosted by Compassionate Hamilton
Thursday, September 28, 2023; 6:00 p.m.
Hope for the Best Plan for the Rest
Conversation with the expert authors, Dr. Hsien Seow and Dr. Sammy Winemaker
Hamilton Public Library, Central branch
2024-2025 Books
This year we did not have to look far to find great books about death, dying, bereavement and loss. Our picks provide plenty to talk about.
A mother's death forces a teen girl to reevaluate their tumultuous relationship in this powerful coming-of-age novel for teens. For fans of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.
After years of physical and verbal abuse from her mother, fourteen-year-old Coi moved in with her father, and together they created a peaceful life. But now, four years later, that peace is shattered when her mother dies.
While Coi struggles to find kindness in her heart for the woman who did nothing but hurt her, her mother's passing does help reopen the door to her mother's side of the family. It's only through reconnecting with her estranged family members, especially her younger half-sister Kayla, that Coi's long-held views about her mother are challenged.
And when Coi begins to see visions of her mother in her dreams, she is forced to ask herself what it means to forgive and be forgiven, and, most importantly, what it means to be family.
Borrow —
contact your local library
Life is short. No-one knows that better than seventeen year old Lenni living on the terminal ward. But as she is about to learn, it's not only what you make of life that matters, but who you share it with.
Dodging doctor's orders, she joins an art class where she bumps into fellow patient Margot, a rebel-hearted eighty three year old from the next ward. Their bond is instant as they realize that together they have lived an astonishing one hundred years.
To celebrate their shared century, they decide to paint their life stories: of growing old and staying young, of giving joy, of receiving kindness, of losing love, of finding the person who is everything.
As their extraordinary friendship deepens, it becomes vividly clear that life is not done with Lenni and Margot yet.
Fiercely alive, disarmingly funny and brimming with tenderness, THE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF LENNI AND MARGOT unwraps the extraordinary gift of life even when it is about to be taken away, and revels in our infinite capacity for friendship and love when we need them most.
Borrow —
contact your local library
It was February 2020 when Ed O'Loughlin unexpectedly heard that Charlotte, a friend from the old days, had just died young and before her time. He realized that he was being led to reappraise his life, his family, and his career as a foreign correspondent and novelist in a new, colder light.
This search for meaning becomes the driving theme of O'Loughlin's year of confinement. The result is a haunting examination of the author's early life and love, the journalists and photographers with whom he covered wars in Africa and the Middle East, the suicide of his brother, his new work as an author, a family home on the edge of a graveyard, and the mysteries of memory, aging, and loss. He was suddenly faced with facts that he had been ignoring, that he was getting old, that he wasn't what he used to be, that his imagination, always over-active, had at some point reversed its direction, switching production from dreams to regrets.
Borrow —
contact your local library
A sweet picture book about a kid welcoming new people into her grammie's old house.
"You're going to love my Grammie's house. You'll love every single thing about it."
A precocious and delightful tour guide walks some potential buyers through Grammie's old house, showing them all the great things about it: a shaggy rug for shuffling, a shady closet that makes a great clubhouse, the perfect spot for eating cookies — even a climbing tree.
And with each new detail eagerly pointed out, we get to see hints of what the house was like when Grammie was still there and experience the love that lived in every nook and cranny.
This charming and tender story celebrates the connections we make between people and the spaces they inhabit, and the memories that can live on even when new connections are being made.
Borrow —
contact your local library
2023-2024 Books
This year we did not have to look far to find great books about death, dying, bereavement and loss. Hamilton’s own Drs. Sammy Winemaker and Hsien Seow have published Hope for the best, Plan for the rest, a fantastic guide to help individuals navigate life-changing diagnoses.
And our other picks provide plenty to talk about too.
In Hope for the Best, Plan for the Rest, Dr. Seow and Dr. Winemaker have combined their decades of palliative care research and experience in caring for seriously ill patients. They have harnessed the advice of thousands of patients to create a roadmap that every patient and family will benefit from. In it, they share the 7 keys to unlock a better illness experience and reveal stories, tips and exercises to improve your journey right from diagnosis. These two compassionate experts empower you with practical tools to take charge of your life-changing diagnosis and navigate the health care system with confidence, knowledge, and calm.
Borrow —
contact your local library
The doctor’s report is final: David has cancer. Now the whole family is under the same terrible verdict. David’s wife becomes progressively consumed by the looming shadow of death while his daughters struggle to be as helpful as possible. Meanwhile, David soldiers on, not wanting the tumor to rob him of everything, including the chance to see his granddaughter grow up.
Vanistendael’s extraordinary art and sensitive text provide a powerful portrayal of a family preparing for life after unimaginable loss.
Borrow —
contact your local library
Three months after Kyo Maclear’s father dies in December 2018, she gets the results of a DNA test showing that she and the father who raised her are not biologically related. Suddenly Maclear becomes a detective in her own life, unravelling a family mystery piece by piece, and assembling the story of her biological father. Along the way, larger questions arise: what exactly is kinship? And what does it mean to be a family? Thoughtful in its reflections on race and lineage, unflinching in its insights on grief and loyalty, Unearthing is a captivating and propulsive story of inheritance that goes beyond heredity.
Borrow —
contact your local library
A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises—especially to ourselves—by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle.
A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
Borrow —
contact your local library
“Reading these books gave me the courage to talk to my parents about what they wanted.”
~ Maria, University Student
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